Paging systems and the like are old and well-known. For example, see U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,396,643; 5,392,452; 5,552,779; and 5,548,814, the entire disclosures of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,396,643 discloses a geographic-area selective satellite based paging system and corresponding method. A terminator having a pager for receiving messages selects a long-term preferred geographic area and a short-term preferred geographic area. Alternatively, a paging originator may select a customized geographic-area into which to broadcast paging information. Thus, the area to which the page is broadcast is limited. When the terminator leaves his normally preferred geographic-area, he may call a gateway and provide a short-term preferred geographic-area. Unfortunately, the paging system of the '643 patent suffers from at least the following problems: (i) the satellite communication system which is utilized is both costly and may become unreliable in certain situations; (ii) the hardware and software needed for satellite access and use is complicated, costly, and subject to breakdown; (iii) when pages to the terminator are unanswered, the originator must blindly select a customized geographic-area in which the page is attempted; (iv) only two geographic-areas, the long-term and short-term areas, may be stored and/or adjusted by the subscriber; (v) the system may be difficult to implement in many foreign countries; and (vi) satellite communications are not cost-effective in circumstances akin to the invention described below.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,493,286 discloses a system for providing communications based on geographic location. Unfortunately, the system and method of the '286 patent would not be particularly useful in a global network, do not permit the subscriber to remotely select or designate countries in which he or she will most likely be, and is based on inherently limited radio frequency (RF) communications.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,552,779 discloses a wide area paging system in which paging messages input in one local area can be broadcast to a receiver in another local area without necessarily broadcasting the message in all areas. Provided in the system of the '779 patent are a plurality of pagers and means for transferring paging requests from one local area to another where the intended recipient of the paging request is currently located. Associated with each local area transmitter are a subscriber storage means for storing a unique identifying address and a current location for each resident pager. Thus, a paging message for a paging receiver normally residing in a first local area, but temporarily located in a second local area, is broadcast by the transmitting means serving the second local area. For example, in the '779 patent disclosure, the receiving user may telephone the system and thereafter be prompted by computer voice to enter the telephone number from which he is calling, including the country code, city or area code, and the local number. Entry of the phone number allows the paging system to know where to send the receiving user's messages. If there is no broadcast coverage in the area entered, the receiving user will be so informed and the messages will not be sent. Additionally, the disclosure of the '779 patent includes a “roam mode” which is utilized when the receiving user travels outside of his home or standard area.
Unfortunately, the paging system of the '779 patent is lacking for at least the following reasons: (i) other than the roaming feature, the receiving user cannot input into the system designated country locations where he or she expects to be in the future; (ii) the '779 system would be inefficient if utilized on a global basis; (iii) the '779 system does not permit the service provider to bill users or subscribers on a country-designation, or extent of coverage, basis; (v) the system for forwarding pages is burdensome, time consuming, and inefficient; and (vi) the roam feature is undesirable and expensive.
It is apparent from the above that there exists a need in the art for a more efficient global paging system in which potential receiving users or subscribers may remotely input country designations in which they are to be paged, and/or may remotely input a list of countries in which they desire paging services. Furthermore, there exists a need in the art for a more cost efficient and simplistic paging system which does not utilize costly and complex satellite technology and/or transmission-suspect data networks.
Regarding cellular phone embodiments of this invention, it has been disclosed in publications to conduct phone-to-phone conversations over the Internet. However, this would be inefficient for cellular phone systems when the callee may be in any one of a plurality of foreign countries, his exact whereabouts not being known to the caller. In such a situation, it would be desirable to not require the callee's cellular phone to continuously have to update the system via roaming, for example as to its location, as this is expensive and inefficient.
It is a purpose of this invention to fulfill the above-described needs in the art, as well as other needs which will become apparent to the skilled artisan from the following detailed description of this invention.